


Too Beautiful To Die Old

by Gildedmuse



Series: 11 Painful Partings [6]
Category: The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Challenge Response, Character Death, Deadly Sin: Vanity, Gen, Niche Fandom Fic, No Beta We Die Like Gothic Heroines, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 18:58:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18580609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gildedmuse/pseuds/Gildedmuse
Summary: For the longest time Dorian had been beautiful. That had to be worth something, right?





	Too Beautiful To Die Old

**Author's Note:**

> [Originally posted to LJ in 2009 as part of an attempt to do a "12 Days Of Fandom" challenge. The first part was 12 Drunken Drabbles. Each of the 11 story is a different fandom but has a similar theme: Painful Partings]

** Too Beautiful To Die Old **

He was beautiful, wasn’t he?  
  
Life… Life disappeared so fast before him. Dorian did everything he could to stop it, to keep it from dancing out like it was so apt to doing to others. He clung to his youth and beauty and things meant to fade. Destined to, really, and for everyone else they did, but not for Dorian. Dorian held them close and refused to let them slip from him as they had so many.  
  
Only now it seemed his efforts had all been quite in vain.  
  
Yes, life was known to go by so quickly, but death was the opposite in so many ways. It crawled by, dragging Dorian through every painful second. Stretching out impossibly in front of him as he felt is body decaying, all his sins rushing into his very soul in these seconds that lasted near forever.  
  
His skin dries and cracks, and above him softness returns to his cheeks and a blush the paleness of his face. His hair thins and falls in clumps to the floor, and grows and shimmers in the painted beauty above him. He is the devil, falling into temptation and sin, and his portrait is glowing with an angelic innocence as it watches the demon crack and crumble without ever reaching down to bring him back to salvation.  
  
Ah, but Dorian was beautiful, wasn’t he? He saw it now, every once of his beauty coming back to the picture, returning his youth and his naivety and the years of perfection that had been lost to Dorian. Even if the scars were hidden behind fair features and smiles, even if the paint absorbed all his outwards sins, nothing could bring back the shine of youth. Life moved forward too fast and these things, they had a habit of disappearing into nothingness before one could properly bring them back.  
  
And suddenly, just like that, the picture was once again complete and beautiful.


End file.
